Shoot Extension in Picea sitchensis II. Analysis of Weather Influences on Daily Growth Rate

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The influence of mean temperature and total solar radiation on the daily increment of shoots of 12-year-old Picea sitchensis is described. Serial auto and cross-correlation analysis is used to show that variation in shoot increment is correlated with variations in weather occurring over several previous hours. The relationships between daily increments for the leading and topmost five whorl shoots and the two controlling variables of temperature and solar radiation are described for the first half of the growing season by auto-regressive models fitted by time-series methods as described by Box and Jenkins. These dynamic system models showed that there was a delay of one day and two days respectively in the influence of temperature and solar radiation on shoot increment and that after these delays the response continued for more than a single day. The maximum final response (or steady state gain) of a typical topmost shoot to temperature and solar radiation change was found to be 0.091 mm d−1(°C)−1 and 0.027 mm d−1 (MJ m−2)−1. For the normal range of these variables experienced this indicates that shoot extension was five times more sensitive to changes in temperature than to those in solar radiation.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: